Ethan and Lillian Return
by Dr. Michaela Quinn
Summary: When Ethan and Lillian Cooper moved to Colorado Springs with their two adopted children, it makes an uproar in the Cooper family. The family is upset that he has returned and Colleen and Matthew are afraid he will try to take custody of Brian again.
1. The Return

"Hi Ma." Colleen said.

"Michaela." Andrew stated. Michaela, Colleen, Andrew and Katie were standing outside the homestead.

"Hello Colleen, Andrew." Michaela said as she repositioned Katie on her hip.

"I'll hold her Ma." Colleen stated reaching out for Katie.

"If you're sure. She's gaining weight as she gets bigger and is getting heavier to carry." Michaela said as she handed Katie to her big sister. Andrew smiled.

"Colleen is very good with children. I know she will make a wonderful mother when we're blessed." Andrew said. Colleen turned to face him.

"Well thank you Andrew. That was a wonderful compliment." Colleen responded.

"Colleen, you know I love you and that I know you're a married woman, but I'm not sure I'm ready to be Grandma yet." Michaela said with a smile.

"You couldn't possibly be like Grandma. I love you Ma. But don't you worry. I'm not sure I'm ready to be a Ma yet. Although I have had a pretty good example growing up." Colleen hugged her. "I think I want to be a doctor for a little while before I become a mother."

"That's a good idea Colleen. That's what I did." Michaela smiled. Colleen laughed. "Well I need to go find Sully and we need to head to the clinic." Michaela said and took Katie from Colleen. They walked onto the porch and through the front door.

[

Ethan and Lillian Cooper rode into town in their wagon with Abigail and Michael.

"Children, we're here." Lillian said. Ethan stopped the wagon right in the middle of town. The children got out of the back.

"Pa, where are we?" Michael asked.

"This is a town called Colorado Springs." Ethan replied smiling at his son.

"Why are we here?" Abigail asked.

"Abigail, your Pa and I have been here before and we really liked the togetherness of the townspeople." Lillian replied.

"Why don't you take the children over to the café while I park the horses over by the general store?" Ethan asked. Lillian nodded and walked Abigail and Michael over to Grace's Café, which wasn't very far from Loren Brey's store. Lillian and the children sat down.

"Are we going to live here permanently?" Michael asked. "This isn't like San Francisco." Lillian laughed.

"It is small children, but I think you will grow to love it just as much as your Pa and I do." Lillian stated. Just then, Colleen walked from the clinic over to Grace's to get soup for one of Michaela's patients. She walked over to Grace.

"Grace?" Colleen asked. Grace looked up at her.

"Who's Doctor Mike got in there today?" Grace questioned looking at her with those soft eyes of hers.

"Oh just a few people. She is in with Horace right now, which is why I'm fetching food for one of the other patients." Colleen replied with a smile. Grace poured some soup into a bowl and handed it to Colleen. "Thank you so much Grace." Colleen walked towards the clinic and walked right past Lillian, Abigail and Michael; but she didn't see them at first so she didn't speak.

"Why hello Colleen. You have grown into a beautiful woman since the last time I saw you." Lillian said. Colleen looked at her.

"Lillian? What are you doing here?" Colleen asked.

"Oh Colleen, please be fair. I married your Pa; I'm your Ma now." Lillian said smiling, trying to be sincere. Colleen looked at Michael and Abigail.

"Who are they?" Colleen questioned.

"Colleen, this is your brother Michael and your sister Abigail. Children this is your sister Colleen." Lillian said. When Ethan started to walk over, Colleen darted for the clinic, her eyes misted with tears. By the time she got to the clinic she was crying so hard she couldn't even open the door. Michaela opened the door. Inside the clinic were Andrew, Sully, Michaela and Katie.

"What's the matter Colleen?" Michaela asked as Andrew wrapped his arms around his wife.

"Ma…. Ma…." Colleen tried to talk through the sobs.

"What Colleen? I'm right here. What's wrong?" Michaela asked. Andrew rubbed Colleen's shoulder.

"What's going on Colleen? What happened at Grace's?" Andrew asked gently and patiently.

"Oh Ma…. It was so horrible. Lillian was at the café." Colleen replied.

"What? Who's Lillian?" Andrew asked looking at her.

"Ethan and Lillian are back in town?" Michaela asked looking at Sully with worry in her eyes and all over her face.

"Yes. I saw them with my own eyes. I talked to Lillian. They have two children now." Colleen said. Michaela looked at Sully once again.

"How's that possible? When I examined her four years ago, I told her she'd been born without a uterus. How can they have children now?" Michaela questioned.

"Maybe they adopted." Sully said.

"I don't care how they have children. Pa and Lillian are back and they might try to take Brian away!" Colleen cried.

"They can't. We are now you and Brian's parents. Ethan has no rights to you anymore." Sully said.

"If they even think they can, we'll take it to the highest court in the land. They won't get Brian again." Michaela stated.

"That's what you said last time and it didn't work. The only thing that made us stay was that Lillian couldn't take us from you. Not because Pa didn't want to take us." Colleen exclaimed. Sully hugged her tight and then pulled away to talk to her.

"Colleen, your Ma and I tried before and failed because he was your father and we didn't have any legal place to stand. But now, we adopted you two. We can fight for Brian more than we could have for you two. Not that we didn't want you both to live with us though. With Matthew in law school, he can defend our side of the case in court." Sully said firmly.

"Good. Because I don't want to lose my little brother." Colleen said as she fell into Sully's arms and cried.


	2. Matthew's Reaction

Matthew and Brian went into town the next day to help Michaela at the clinic. They saw Ethan outside of Loren's store. Ethan saw them just before they walked into the clinic.

"Matthew. Brian. You both have certainly gotten bigger since I saw you several years back. Matthew, I hear you're in law school. Brian, you must be getting ready to head off to college." Ethan said.

"Yeah I'm in law school. I've already talked to Doctor Mike and Sully. I'm going to be their attorney if you try taking Brian away from them again." Matthew stated.

"Take Brian away from Doctor Quinn? Why would I do that?" Ethan asked with a laugh.

"You tried once before." Brian said from almost behind Matthew.

"Why are you hiding boy? I'm your Pa. Aren't you going to give me a hug?" Ethan asked as he walked towards Brian. Brian ran towards the clinic. Ethan started to walk after him and Matthew grabbed his arm.

"This is the third time you've hurt him. Haven't you had enough?" Matthew asked.

"Let go of me Matthew. I don't have a problem with you and I won't if you don't let me go talk to your brother." Ethan said sternly.

"You left me to take care of Ma, Colleen and Brian when I was thirteen years old. I haven't had to listen to you in years. I'm sick and tired of you doing this to our family. Colleen and Brian are happy with Doctor Mike and Sully. You are not going to destroy our family by taking Brian out of it." Matthew replied. Ethan pulled himself out of Matthew's grip and straightened his jacket.

"I have two children who love me right now. I wouldn't think of taking your little Brian. Why would I?" Ethan asked.

"Because you can't think of anybody but yourself. You have been self-centered your entire life. I don't know why Ma even married you. You didn't care about her! And you certainly don't care about us!" Matthew stormed off. Ethan walked towards the clinic and walked in. Michaela was sitting at the desk; Sully was standing there with Andrew and Colleen.

"Hello Ethan. I heard you were in town." Michaela said calmly. Ethan ignored her and looked at Colleen.

"Why hello Colleen. You are a beautiful woman. I heard you graduated from school and are now going on to college." Ethan said. Colleen walked behind Sully and Andrew and into the room that Brian is in and locked the door behind her. Ethan tried to go after her, but Andrew and Sully stand in his way.

"Colleen doesn't want you to see her." Sully said.  
>"I'm her father. I will see her if I want." Ethan replied. Andrew looked at Sully and then Michaela.<p>

"Andrew, it's a long story. We will talk about this back at the house." Michaela said.

"Who are you anyway?" Ethan asked as he looked at him in a funny way.

"I'm…" Andrew started to say. Michaela jumped up.

"A new doctor in town. He worked for the hotel until it was destroyed. Now he assists me in the clinic." Michaela replied. Sully took his arm.

"Ethan, it is not a good idea for you to stay here. It was bad enough when you took Michaela and me to court about Colleen and Brian, but you told us you would leave and never come back. But now you've come back and we don't know why. You are not going to upset Colleen, Brian, Matthew, and Michaela again." Sully said.

"Oh yeah? What can you do about it? The law was on my side last time. Who says if I even tried to take back Brian it wouldn't be again?" Ethan asked. Sully grabbed him and dragged him outside of the clinic.

"I can't say that you aren't allowed in this town. But I don't want to see you at my home, Matthew's or the clinic again." Sully said.

"You can't tell me that I can't see my children!" Ethan exclaimed.

"You abandoned us years ago! Colleen and I are old enough to make our own decisions now. Neither of us want to see you. You can't force Brian. Doctor Mike and Sully are responsible for him. They adopted him three years ago!" Matthew hollered. Ethan turned around.

"Stay out of this Matthew." Ethan replied. Sully looked at him.

"Matthew, fightin' won't do you any good. We had this problem when he came back the last time." Sully stated.

"Sully, I won't let him take my little brother. He let him go last time, but there is nothing saying he won't take him away this time." Matthew responded. Ethan started to walk away and Matthew jumped on him.

"Matthew!" Sully exclaimed and ran over to them. Michaela and Andrew rushed out of the clinic.

"What is he doing?" Michaela asked Sully.

"What's it look like?" Sully asked with his arms crossed. Matthew was hitting Ethan in the side, the stomach, the back, anywhere. Jake, Hank, Loren, Sully, and Andrew finally went out and pulled Matthew off of Ethan.

"What's gotten into you boy?" Loren asked Matthew.

"I'm tired of him trying to destroy my family!" Matthew exclaimed. Ethan wiped the blood from underneath his nose.

"I'm not trying to destroy your family Matthew. Lillian and I were trying to be a part of it!" Ethan stated and limped away.

"Wait, Ethan. I can help you." Michaela said. Ethan turned around and looked at them.

"No, I don't want any more help from your family. All I wanted was to see my children and it's obvious they want nothing to do with me." Ethan walked away from the clinic.


	3. Colleen's Reaction

"I'd like four yards of this material, Mr. Bray." Colleen said as she walked over with it. Loren nodded.

"That is a nice pattern Colleen." Andrew said from behind her.

"Thank you Andrew." Colleen paused. "Or thank you Doctor Cook."

"No, thank you Mrs. Cooper Cook." Andrew replied with a smile. Loren scowled.

"Stop that, not in public anyway." Loren said. Andrew looked at him.

"I'm sorry Loren. I won't do that anymore." Andrew said.

"Hello Mr. Bray, do you have any tobacco yet?" A voice called from behind Colleen and Andrew. Colleen turned around and saw Ethan Cooper standing there in the flesh. Colleen gasped and grabbed Andrew's arm.

"Yeah, let me go in the back." Loren walked out of sight looking for tobacco. Ethan crossed his arms waiting for Loren and turned and saw Colleen standing there.

"Hello Colleen. It's good to see you again." Ethan said. Colleen held tightly to Andrew and buried her face in his jacket. Andrew put his arm around her shoulders. "Who are you? Why do you have your filthy hands on my daughter?" Colleen turned around and faced Ethan. Her face was red and puffy from crying.

"You aren't my father!" Colleen exclaimed. She tried to walk away and Ethan grabbed her arm.

"I was there the day you were born, I'm your father and you can't change that." Ethan replied.

"You aren't my father. Sully is my father! He's been there for me ever since you left Ma with Matthew, Brian and me. He helped us through different times. The whole town did! While you ran off and didn't even say good bye! You've never said good bye when you leave, you just run off and leave us here." Colleen said sobbing. Andrew hugged her.

"I wrote you a letter didn't I? I told you why I could stay." Ethan said.

"Maybe you should leave Ethan." Michaela stated from behind him. She walked into the store holding Katie.

"Doctor Quinn, this is none of your business. This is a conversation between me and my daughter." Ethan responded looking at Colleen.

"Ethan, Colleen is my daughter. I have every right to be a part of her life; and you I'm afraid do not. You gave up your rights to Brian and Colleen three years ago." Michaela said. Ethan looked at Michaela and Katie.

"Look Doctor Quinn, I see that you've already had a child of your own. Why don't you stick to raising her instead of raising my children? I love my children and I want what's the best for them." Ethan stated.

"No you don't! You wanted what's best for you! You always have. You aren't my Pa and you never will be!" Colleen hollered and ran out of the store. She ran across the street to the café where Brian was eating lunch with Sully and Matthew.

"What's the matter?" Sully asked as flabbergasted and sobbing Colleen sat down.

"Is it Pa?" Brian asked putting a hand on Colleen's wrist. Colleen looked at him.

"He's not my Pa! Don't say that! Sully is my Pa now." Colleen exclaimed. Brian sat back stunned. "I'm sorry Brian. I didn't mean to upset you." Andrew and Michaela rushed over to the café.

"Oh Colleen, I'm so sorry that this had to happen." Andrew sat down and wrapped his arms around his wife.

"I can't wait until I am away from here and at that women's medical school." Colleen stated.

"Maybe we should just go ahead and leave Colleen." Andrew said rubbing her back. Colleen looked at him.

"You can't go just yet. School doesn't start for several months." Michaela replied.

"I can find a job up there. I'm going to medical school. Maybe they will let me work in the hospital. I've worked with you for the last seven years." Colleen responded.

"I don't think that's necessary." Michaela stated. Colleen looked up at her Ma.

"I'm sorry Ma, I have to leave. I just don't know how much longer I can take being in the same town with Ethan Cooper. He was my Pa for a long time. I'm sorry he was ever my Pa. The best thing he could have ever done for Ma and us children was to leave and never come back." Colleen stood up and walked away from the table.


End file.
